After a strong rookie season in the 1937 Cardinals outfield (.314, 10 HR, 74 RBI), Padgett slumped the next year and was converted to catcher, a position he never really mastered. In 1941, three days after Pearl Harbor, the Dodgers purchased his contract for $30,000, waited four years while he served in the Navy, and then sold him to the Phillies in June 1946.
